Watch out for these 5 indie demos during Steam’s Deckbuilders Fest 2026
Demos, discounts and deckbuilders! If you can’t get enough of deckbuilders off the back of Slay the Spire 2’s early-access release, then you’ll want to jump into Steam’s 2026 Deckbuilders Fest! This year features some of the most unique and exciting indie deckbuilding roguelikes and tactical card battlers that you can get your hands on right now, here are our top 5 picks:
Northanda Chronicles
Featuring dreamy-DnD-esque fantasy hand painted artwork, this tactical roguelike deckbuilder is a must have from the festival if you love role based games and playing as the traditional holy trinity party that was made popular from RPG titles such as Final Fantasy. Sharing a single deck across one party, players need to balance their resources as they lead three legendary heroes while navigating dangerous dungeons, fighting with abilities based on the party’s individual roles: Support, Slayer and Defender. Support the brother duo devs from studio Hyperfocus Interactive by wishlisting and downloading the demo!
Fame or Folly
Pixel-art renaissance meets massive replayability in this strategy roguelike where the stage is quite literally your playing arena. Leading a ragtag troupe of performers, you take to the stage in the Grand Festival to battle it out using 150+ Troupercards to orchestrate your best performance. Fame or Folly features five distinct classes, 15 starting decks and 1 hour runs, which means players can enjoy a quick round or encourage that “one more round” mentality. Demo available on Steam now.
Zodiac Mountain
Inspired by folklore, players follow a young Panda on his journey through ancient mythic China as he fights his way to become the ultimate Chinese Zodiac. This stunning roguelike deckbuilder features hand-drawn artwork, two-sided cards, procedurally generated backgrounds and dual-handed combat that draws on Yin & Yang. There is massive replayability in Zodiac Mountain as every encounter, arena and pathway through this game feels new and unique and the demo is available to play right now.
Pluto
Slightly cursed and like a fever dream—this is exactly the kind of unique creativity that we love to see in indie gaming. You play as a not-so-heroic wizard trying to escape prison to make it to their niece’s birthday party, encountering enemies and using spells built from elemental patterns and cast directly from your fingers to defeat them. Players who enjoy Slay the Spire will love this hand-drawn, dark-fantasy deckbuilding roguelike. Demo and developer streaming available during the Steam Deckbuilders fest.
Shroom and Gloom
If you’re a regular doom-scroller on the indie-algo, you’ve probably already come across this game on the likes of TikTok due to its stunning hand-drawn art and animations. Shroom and Gloom is a roguelike double-deckbuilder, which features two decks to play from: one for combat, one for exploration. Players can use hundreds of different cards to combo and combat their way through surreal almost-psychedelic-like dungeons. Oh, and did we mention mushroom foes that you can roast and eat?? There’s a reason this game was picked up by publisher, Devolver Digital. Check out the demo during Deckbuilders fest!
Please let us know your top picks in the comments, and don’t forget to wishlist!
